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Q&A: Shavuot Night Tikkun

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Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Shavuot Night Tikkun

Question

Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask what your opinion is regarding the “Shavuot Night Tikkun,” especially as a continuation of your articles that touched on the definition of “learning.”
In various communities (mainly Sephardi and Hasidic ones), it is customary to recite the “Tikkun” formulated by the Arizal and arranged by the Chida. 
On the one hand, the idea of staying awake at night is primarily a kabbalistic one (its earliest source is in the Zohar), so there is reason to say that someone who observes the basic practice because of a kabbalistic instruction would be better off filling it with content according to that same instruction. In other words, if you stay up at night in order to fix the “twenty-four bridal adornments,” it is worth listening to the experts about how to fix them.
On the other hand, the practice of the “Tikkun” has spread, and today it is recited by many ordinary people who do not understand, while reading, the plain meaning of the verses they are reciting, even if they want to understand. Especially in the Mishnah sections of the Tikkun, someone who wants to understand the mishnayot quoted there without context and without commentary would need to have very broad Torah knowledge.
In reality, people mumble verses and mishnayot without understanding and without concentration. Presumably, the first kabbalistic groups were made up of sages who knew the plain meaning of the texts, and could also concentrate and review them in that way. Does the reading of people who do not have that ability have value?
Perhaps one should distinguish between reciting verses from the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), which have “textual sanctity,” as you put it, and reciting mishnayot, whose sanctity is only in their content?
 

Answer

Since I do not feel qualified in Kabbalah, I cannot say what the tikkun is or how one does it. If you want to study Torah on that night, I would recommend studying and not mumbling. And even someone who knows the meaning of the words of the Mishnah and the verses—at best this is Torah study of poor quality (a waste of Torah study in terms of quality). If someone wants to do something else, I do not know what to advise him.
The distinction you made between mumbling verses and mumbling mishnayot is certainly correct. Reason suggests that mumbling mishnayot is not Torah study at all. Mumbling verses is only a waste of Torah study in terms of quality. True, the Maggid told Rabbi Yosef Karo to review mishnayot by heart, but as noted, he knew their meaning (and even so, I would not build on instructions from the Maggid).

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